By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on June 8, 2023
“Let your work speak for you .... and you’ll never have to say anything about yourself.” -- Dr. Levi Watkins, Jr., M.D.
This quote has been the Watkins family mantra for six generations. My oldest brother, Dr. Levi Watkins, Jr., practiced it religiously.
Levi's journey from "VU Med School Get's 1st Negro" to the dedication of The Levi Watkins, Jr. M.D. Outpatient Center at Johns Hopkins Medical Center has been an amazing experience for our family.
Levi, Jr., who died in 2015, became a world-renowned heart surgeon whose implantable defibrillator has kept more than three million hearts beating in a regular rhythm since he made medical history at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1980 by co-developing and implanting the first automatic defibrillator in a heart patient.
The Watkins family is proud of Levi, Jr., and his pioneering work in cardiovascular surgery. He lives on in every patient who has an implantable defibrillator keeping him/her alive.
Today's dedication of The Levi Watkins, Jr., M.D. Outpatient Center at the John Hopkins University Medical Complex is an extreme honor for Levi, Jr., and the Watkins family. It was also a historic event for one of the world's premier medical institutions.
The dedication ceremony was attended by several immediate Watkins family members.
This was the fifth dedication of a major building in America that bears the name of a Carmichael/Varnado/Watkins family member.
The Watkins family has always been and will continue to be "Bridge Builders" in American society.